In many semiautomatic and/or fully automatic firearms driven by gas operating systems, the barrels of such firearms typically are surrounded by a hand guard or forward grip with the barrel generally mounted in a “free floating” arrangement out of contact with the hand guard. During use of the firearm, the hand guard or forward grip portion enables the operator to securely grip and support the firearm along the barrel portion thereof without coming into contact with the barrel, which can become extremely hot during the firing of the weapon. Additionally, the hand guard can provide for the mounting of rails, lights and other accessories along the firearm.
Typically, many firearm hand guards have been designed to be removable so as to enable access to the barrel and/or gas system of the firearm for purposes of cleaning and/or replacement of the barrel and/or gas system components of the firearm. Such removable hand guards often are fastened to the barrel nut and/or upper receiver of the firearm with bolts, clamps or other, similar fasteners. Since it generally is necessary that the hand guards be mounted in as tight and secure a mounting as possible, a series of fasteners or similar attachment mechanisms often are used to install conventional hand guards. However, such attachments can introduce difficulties in removing and/or tightly securing the hand guard to the upper receiver, especially in the field and often typically require that tools, such as wrenches, screwdrivers, etc., be readily available to the shooter for removing and/or tightly securing the hand guard. In addition, it is often necessary to remove the barrel nut and/or the entire barrel assembly to remove some hand guards for change-out or replacement of the hand guard.
Accordingly, a need exists for an attachment mechanism for attaching a hand guard or forward grip to a receiver of a firearm that addresses the foregoing and other related and unrelated problems in the art.